28.08.2005 - Two weeks ago to this day, the Chess Classic Mainz 2005 ended: time to revisit the games played at this event. And many exciting games were played, not only in the two great matches (Anand vs Grischuk and Svidler vs Almasi), but also in the FiNet Open, the Ordix Open, in the Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship and in the Unzicker Gala80. So here they are, all games of the Chess Classic Mainz in pgn format, together with a few hints on how to use them. more...

14.08.2005 - Teimur Radjabov from Azerbadjan is the winner of the 12th Ordix Open. The 18-year old won the tournament by scoring 9,5 points out of 11 games. Radjabov did not play the FiNet Open and in the last rounds he certainly had more energy left than his colleagues who already started playing on Thursday in the Chess960 tournament. Levon Aronian, Alexander Morozevich, Alexey Dreev, Pentala Harikrishna, Alexander Grishuk and Gabriel Sargissian shared second place with 9 points in the Ordix Open, in which the top 10 players had an average rating of 2705! more...

NachrichtenOrdix Open – Lunchbreak

14.08.2005 - After seven rounds in the Ordix Open, it looked like Levon Aronian was heading for his first Ordix title. The winner of the FiNet Open won spectacular games in the morning against Radjabov and Naiditsch. However, in the last round before the lunchbreak, he had to play against Alexander Morozevich, which he lost. The Russian grandmaster is now leading the field with 7,5 points, followed by five players with 7 points: Alexey Dreev, who mated Alexander Grischuk in round eight, Levon Aronian, Teimur Radjabov, Michal Krasenkov, and Penteala Harikrishna. 52 grandmasters are playing in the Open and we have 139 players with an international FIDE title, so you can see many interesting games, not only at the top boards. The most interesting position of the day so far could be seen on the board of Jörg Hickl and Ivan Sokolov, when no less than 5 Queens stood on the board. Hickl, a Queen down, won the game in the end!

14.08.2005 - After the FiNet Chess960 Open the WNCA publishes a new IPS (Individual Player Strenght) for Chess960 tournaments. After his win in the FiNet Open Levon Aronian is the new number one with IPS 2752, just before Chess960 world champion Peter Svidler, who has IPS 2750. It is easy to find a particular name in the ratinglist. Just press “Ctrl” and “F” at the same time to use the browsers seek function. After that , you just need to fill in the name of the player. more...

13.08.2005 - In the fifth game of FiNet Chess960 match, Almasi once again had a very good position, but he had not enough time to win the game. “Yes, time is a big problem for me in this match”, Almasis said in the press conference. Peter Svilder has other problems: “As usual I did not get anything out of the opening in the first game. I sacrificed a pawn later in the game but since I had enough compensation, Zoltan could not win. And in the second game of the day I tried something different, I did not want to have a symmetrical position. In the end, Zoltan had no time left and my attack was too strong”. This match is not decided as well, Svidler is leading 4-2. more...

13.08.2005 - Alexander Grischuk might have been a bit tired after the five Ordix games, because in his first game of the day against Vishy Anand the players agreed to share the point after 22 moves. In the second game of the Grenke Leasing championship the Indian sacrificed a pawn and started an attack. more...

13.08.2005 - Talking about kids, the Children´s Club next to the press room is getting quite popular. More and more parents have discovered the Children´s Club sign and take a look the room in which the children can play Chess and Chesster, watch a video or DVD, play with toys or grab a book. The parents can leave their children for a couple of hours in the Club, because professional youth coaches take care of the children. more...

13.08.2005 - 546 players started in the Ordix Open today. Many, many top grandmasters are among them like Shirov, Radjabov, Bacrot and Aronian, to name just a few. Surprisingly, Alexander Grischuk started as well. Anand´s challenger apparently wants to win his third Ordix Open title in a row, but does he have enough energy to play a tough tournament like the Ordix, which he dominated in 2003 and 2004, and two more games against Anand in the evening? In the evening matches, the Tiger from Madras tried to decide the Grenke Leasing match today but Grischuk easily won the sixth game. The Chess960 match between Svidler and Almasi will be decided on the last day, but it will be very difficult for the challenger to win the match, because Svidler won the sixth game. He only needs half a point tomorrow. more...

NachrichtenChess Classic Press review

13.08.2005 - Many magazines, newspapers and online media from all over the world write about the Chess Classic Mainz. You can find articles from TWIC, Russian Chess, German Chess Federation, Chennai Online, Die Zeit, Hindustan Times and other magazines right here. Chess Classic Press review

NachrichtenGrischuk wants the hattrick!

13.08.2005 - 546 players started playing the Ordix Open today. Many, many top grandmasters are among them like Shirov, Radjabov, Bacrot and Aronian, to name just a few. Surpisingly, Alexander Grischuk started as well. Anand´s challenger apparantly wants to win his third Ordix Open title, but does he have enough energy to play a tough tournament like the Ordix, which he dominated in 2003 and 2004, and two more games against Anand in the evening? If he keeps on playing like he did in the first round against 14-year old Reinhold Müller he needs a lot of energy today. He played 127 moves in his first game and was lucky that the unexperienced German, with a rating of 2134 lost a completely drawn rook ending with a few seconds left on the clock.

12.08.2005 - Friday in Mainz: the day started off with sunshine but in the afternoon and evening thunder and lightning brought some extra energy to the Rheingoldhalle. What happened today during the Chess Classic Mainz? Spike won the Chess960 computer chess championship, Levon Aronian won his second Chess960 Open tournament with an incredable score, Anand and Svidler maintained the lead in their matches, although their opponents Grischuk and Almasi played much better than yesterday. more...

12.08.2005 - The German program Spike by Volker Böhm and Ralf Schäfer won the first Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship. After the first day the local heroes from Mainz and Wiesbaden scored four points, and today they could add another 1,5 points which was enough to win the first price. Another German program, Jonny, programmed by the strong chessplayer Johannes Zwanzger landed on the second place, the Norwegian program Glaurung by Tord Romsted came in third. more...

12.08.2005 - Levon Aronian won the FiNet Chess960 Open for he second time. After his victory in 2003, this year he scored 10 points out of 11 games! “I particularly liked the game against Bacrot, because I had a winning position after only four moves! Only in the game against Graf I had a difficult position, but in the end I outplayed him. I really like to play Chess960. It is not important to play good moves, you must have a good plan”. Next year the 22-year old Armenian can look forward to play a match against the winner of the Svidler-Almasi match. more...

Nachrichten„Chess960 is better than sex“

12.08.2005 - You´ve read the title, and you´re wondering what it is all about? For our English readers, here are a some quotes from the article in the German section, written by Chess Classic press officer Hartmut Metz. “Chess is better than sex”, Prof. Eckhard Freise joked, because there are more positions!” That was a good one! What about this one: “I am the best friend of the grandmasters”, Hans-Walter Schmitt said, “they can sit on their lazy butt in between games, because they don´t have to prepare openings in Chess960”. And another fine quote by the ever-active organiser: “I like to compare Chess960 with the Internet. In the mid-nineties it was unstoppable. So is Chess960”.

NachrichtenLunchbreak after eight rounds: Aronian takes the lead!

12.08.2005 - Lunchbreak in Mainz during the FiNet Chess960 Open: three rounds were played this morning, and the players have three more tough rounds to go today. One player is leading the field all alone: Levon Aronian scored three wins today and after eight rounds he has scored 7,5 points! The Armenian won important games against the winner of the Sparkassen Open in Dortmund, Arkadi Naiditsch and also scored fine wins over Ivan Sokolov and Etienne Bacrot today. However, Ivan Sokolov and Artur Yussupov follow with seven points. An exciting finish is expected. In round nine, Yussupov and Aronian will battle it out. Sokolov will play against “the divine” Eric Lobron.

11.08.2005 - Here is a short overview of the events that took place on Thursday in Mainz : the FiNet Chess960 Open, Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship, the Grenke Leasing Match Anand-Grishuk and the FiNet Chess960 world championship Svidler-Almasi started today.
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NachrichtenBlack is OK in the exhibitions!

11.08.2005 - Yesterday, Vishy Anand and Antoaneta Stefanova played blitz games against VIP´s and amateurs. The pros won all their games with the black pieces. You can download all the games of the exhibition here.
Matches: Exhibition Blitz

NachrichtenSokolov and Shirov with 100% score!

11.08.2005 - After the first five rounds of the FiNet Chess960 Open, only two players still have a 100% score: Ivan Sokolov from The Netherlands and Alexey Shirov, who is representing Spain. Levon Aronian, Michal Krasenkov, Etienne Bacrot, Rafael Vaganian and Alexander Graf scored 4,5 points on the first day. The best female players are Maya Chiburdanidze, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalia Zhukova and Antoaneta Stefanova with 4 points. This year, 207 players came to Mainz to play the tournament in which opening theory is not needed at all. Tomorrow six more tough rounds will be played. The winner of the FiNet Open is entitled to play a world championship match against the winner of the match Svidler-Almasi next year. Ranking after 5 roundsChess960 Matches: FiNet Open rd 1-5

NachrichtenSpike shocks Shredder

11.08.2005 - After four rounds there is only one program with a perfect score. Surpisingly not the top favourite Shredder is leading the table, but the program “Spike”, developed by local heroes Ralf Schäfer and Volker Böhm. Shredder, Pharaon and Jonny have three points and still have good chances to land on the top spot on Friday, when three more rounds will be played. All games will be broadcast live on Friday, the fifth round will start at 10.30. All games can soon be downloaded from this website.